1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material and, more particularly, to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material having a high sensitivity and little waste of processing solutions, and also excellent in stability in so-called low-replenishment processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The technological progress of silver halide color photographic light-sensitive materials (including a color negative film and color reversal light-sensitive materials, which will be generally referred to as simply a color negative film hereinafter) has continued without a hitch, and so ISO-sensitivity 400-class light-sensitive materials, which was once called super high sensitivity film, has begun to be used as regular film for common users.
Much research has been made to achieve high sensitivities and high image qualities. For example, each of JP-A-58-113930 ("JP-A" means Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application), JP-A-58-113934, and JP-A-59-119350 discloses a multilayered color photographic light-sensitive material that uses silver halide emulsions consisting of tabular grains with an aspect ratio of 8:1 or more in high-speed layers and has a high sensitivity and is improved in graininess, in sharpness, and in color reproducibility. In addition, as a method of improving sharpness and color reproducibility, JP-A-61-77847 discloses a method of using silver halide emulsions consisting of tabular grains with an aspect ratio of 5:1 or more in high-speed layers and monodisperse emulsions in low-speed layers.
The development of these light-sensitive materials, on the other hand, has recently begun to be performed by so-called low-replenishment processing, in which the quantity of replenisher is reduced by controlling the composition of a replenisher of a color developing solution, in order to prevent water pollution and reduce processing cost. The control of the replenisher composition in the low-replenishment processing is to, for instance, concentrate waste components, such as a color developing agent and a preservative, so that a necessary amount of components is supplied even if the quantity of replenisher is reduced. When the processing as described above is performed for a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material, however, an antifoggant, for example, flowing out from the light-sensitive material is accumulated in a developing solution, and this causes the development performance to vary. The smaller the quantity of replenisher, the larger the influence.
The above low-replenishment processing was performed for the light-sensitive material disclosed in JP-A-61-77847, in which silver halide emulsions consisting of tabular grains with an aspect ratio of 5:1 or more were used in high-speed layers and monodisperse emulsions were used in low-speed layers. The result was that the reduction in sensitivity and the change in gradation were too large to reach a satisfactory level from the point of view of stability.
As described above, no conventional light-sensitive materials and developing methods can achieve good graininess, sharpness and color reproducibility and a high sensitivity at the same time.